NORWALK -- Duchess is celebrating a milestone anniversary in Norwalk this year.

The restaurant has been serving hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, fries, onion rings and dozens of other food items on Main Street in the city for 50 years.

"We've had customers move away and when they come back to visit Norwalk they have to stop in and get a hot dog. I hear that all the time," said Sid Fialk, who brought Duchess to Norwalk in 1964.

Brothers Jack and Harold Berkowitz opened the original Duchess in Fairfield in 1956. Jack Berkowitz and Fialk were good friends and brothers-in-law. Fialk had a clothing store in Bridgeport at the time and was known as the "best dressed guy in town," he said.

"Then when I started here I had to change my clothes in the hallway when I got home because of the grease," Fialk said. "At the beginning it was take-out only. Customers walked up to a window and hollered their order. We remembered everything."

One of Duchess' first customers in Norwalk was none other than Mayor Harry Rilling. He was a teenager when it opened and remembers the day fondly.

"We lived around the corner on Delaware Avenue. We watched it being built and couldn't wait for it to open," Rilling said. "It was kind of the place to be. It was a hangout. It was a good place to see your friends."

Fialk is now 85 years old and still goes to work every day. He can often be seen mingling with customers and making sure everybody's food is as they want it.

"I've been here for 50 years," he said. "For the first 25 years I worked days and nights. In the last 25 years, I've worked every day, but I've also played a lot of golf."

Michael Berkowitz, Jack's son and Fialk's nephew, said Fialk has a need to be at the restaurant every day.

"Every Duchess started with an owner who was working there," he said. "I walk around and talk to customers. If someone doesn't like a sandwich I go home that night and I'm aggravated. It needs to be right."

There are now 14 Duchess locations in Connecticut, most of them in Fairfield County. The location is Ansonia is also celebrating 50 years this year. Expansion has been purposely slow, according to Gary Lavin, president of the chain.

"Over the last 60 years a lot of chains have come to Connecticut and failed. We still thrive here after all this time," Lavin said. "We look at locations all the time, but they are hard to find in Connecticut. We want to make sure we start with a solid foundation of success and that's not always easy to find. We'd rather focus on providing fresh food and customer service and giving people a nice, clean environment to eat in."

Fialk and the founding Berkowitz's hit a home run with Norwalk's 157 Main St. location. It burned down in 1999 and was remodeled in 2003, but it has stood the test of time, all the while making the necessary changes to remain ahead of the curve in the fast food business.

"It has evolved into a good place for families to go," Rilling said. "When my kids were growing up and I'd ask: 'Where do you want to eat?' They say Duchess. Sid is quite a guy. He still cares for that place the way he did when he first opened it."

Michael Berkowitz said Duchess, as much as it evolves, wil also offer three things: "variety, freshness, and cooked to order."